How Neurotypical and Autistic Children Interact Nonverbally with Anthropomorphic Agents in Open-Ended Tasks
This research is significant for developers of socially interactive AI, as it provides insights into how neurotypical and autistic children nonverbally engage with embodied agents, informing the design of more inclusive systems.
This study investigated nonverbal interactions between neurotypical and autistic children and anthropomorphic agents in open-ended tasks. They collected 563 nonverbal behaviors and found that children's interaction patterns differed from those reported in adult studies, also noting the presence of repetitive face and hand movements.
What nonverbal behaviors should a robot respond to? Understanding how children-both neurotypical and autistic-engage with embodied artificial agents is critical for developing inclusive and socially interactive systems. In this paper, we study "open-ended" unconstrained interactions with embodied agents, where little is known about how children behave nonverbally when given few instructions. We conducted a Wizard-of-Oz study in which children were invited to interact nonverbally with 6 different embodied virtual characters displayed on a television screen. We collected 563 (141 unique) nonverbal behaviors produced by children and compare the childre's interaction patterns with those previously reported in an adult study. We also report the presence of repetitive face and hand movements, which should be considered in the development of nonverbally interactive artificial agents.